World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power for the First Time

Re:World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power ... by debacle on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @09:21AM (#6444365)

I wasn't aware we were building these solar towers in the US. How does this compare to the solar updraft ones being built in Australia? It seems like the solar chimney design is more simple, however there are obvious efficiency concerns (kW/acre).

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Re:World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power ... by _nate_ on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @09:59AM (#6444588)

I was going to bring up the same point. The solar updraft systems seem to be more cost effective and generally easier to build. I don’t understand why they’re not being built more. However, they definitely take up more land. And nature advocates claim they are harder on the environment because they essentially bake the top soil, killing everything (which is probably true). But everything has trade offs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower

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Re:World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power ... by debacle on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @04:36PM (#6447128)

It looks like the solar updraft systems are only cost effective when you have vast amounts of cheap/free land - they are very inefficient in Watts per square meter, getting around 1% efficiency compared to 20-35% for other systems.

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